Ex-Guatemalan soldier Jorge Sosa gets 10 years in U.S. jail for hiding his role in ‘ruthless massacre’

After arriving in Alberta in 1988, Jorge Sosa studied at Lethbridge Community College and kept in touch with his Central American roots by participating in dance and fashion shows hosted by the Guatemala Folkloric Association.

But in 1992, the year he relocated to Calgary, his past began to haunt him. An Argentine forensics team inspected a well in Dos Erres, a village in northern Guatemala, and found stark evidence of a war crime.

The skeletons of 162 people had been dumped into the 12-metre pit, 67 of them children — victims of a 1982 massacre by Guatemalan troops who shot their victims and bludgeoned them with sledgehammers.

A former member of the Guatemalan counter-insurgency unit responsible for the atrocity, Sosa, 55, was sentenced by a California judge Monday to 10 years imprisonment for concealing his role in the Dos Erres massacre.

“This prosecution demonstrates our resolve to deny safe haven to human rights violators and to ensure that these criminals are held accountable,” said Mythili Raman, the acting U.S. assistant attorney general.

But while the case showed the long memory and reach of war crimes prosecutors, it also highlighted how hard it can be to bring those responsible for wartime atrocities to account. Sosa was convicted only of an immigration violation — failing to be forthcoming about his past when he applied for U.S. citizenship.

Matt Eisenbrandt, legal director of the Canadian Centre for International Justice, said while the sentence was a “good start,” Sosa should have been prosecuted in Canada for what he did in Guatemala, rather than for misleading immigration authorities in the United States.

“We would have preferred to see him tried in Canada for war crimes and we continue to hope that some day he will stand trial on those charges. But it is good that he will be spending several years in jail. It is at least a step toward justice for the Dos Erres massacre,” he said.

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The Dos Erres massacre was one of many that occurred when Central America was a battleground for Cold War proxy wars. In 1976, Sosa became an officer in the U.S.-backed Guatemalan Army and joined the elite Kaibiles, commandos who specialized in jungle warfare.

Although he was an instructor at the Kaibil training academy, in early 1982, he was selected for the Special Patrol, described by U.S. prosecutors as “a small unit formed to combat guerrilla forces.”

In November, 1982, guerrillas ambushed Guatemalan soldiers and stole their rifles. The following month, the Special Patrol entered Dos Erres hoping to recover the weapons. They did not find them, nor was there any other evidence the guerrillas were nearby.

Regardless, the soldiers began a process of ruthless interrogation. They cordoned off the village, rounded up the residents for questioning and after separating the men from the women, began raping young girls.

“To cover up the rapes, all of the villagers were brought to the centre of the village, where the Special Patrol members systematically killed the men, women and children,” the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.

Many of the bodies were dumped in a well, a process that Sosa supervised. Some of those thrown in were still alive and screamed out at Sosa, who responded “by cursing and shooting his assault weapon and throwing a grenade into the well,” prosecutors said.

Six years later, Sosa turned up in Lethbridge and, four years after that, he moved to Calgary, where he participated in “displays, fashion shows, dancing and special events” hosted by the Guatemalan Calgary Association.

“We find in Jorge, a person with a wonderful heart, willing to help and support people in any way,” read one of the many character references he presented in court – letters that are difficult to reconcile with the horror of Dos Erres.

“Jorge provided encouragement and assistance to people in Alberta. He gave a helping hand to new immigrants to establish themselves in Canada,” the letter continued. “As a Christian, Jorge was devoted to God by belonging to the order of Jesus Christ Group in his religious organizations.”

In 1997, Sosa settled in Moreno Valley, Calif., where he was a karate instructor known as Sensei Sosa. “No matter what is uncovered from his past I will always believe he is a kind and loving man,” one of his martial arts students wrote.

But Dos Erres haunted the Special Patrol. In 2010, U.S. authorities arrested Gilberto Jordan, another member of the Kaibiles, in Florida. In an omen of what awaited Sosa, Jordan was convicted of lying to immigration officials about his role in the Dos Erres massacre when he applied for U.S. citizenship.

Apparently aware he was under investigation, Sosa left for Mexico and then made his way back to Alberta. Canadian officials arrested him in Lethbridge in 2011, and the Alberta court upheld his extradition to the United States. Monday’s sentencing stripped him of his U.S. citizenship, which he held in addition to Canadian citizenship.

He continues to have supporters in Lethbridge, however, some of whom wrote letters to the sentencing judge doubting his role in war crimes — including one who said Sosa always greeted him by saying “Happy, Happy.”

“Yes, I would let him teach my children. Yes, I want him in my community. Yes, I want him teaching me martial arts. Yes, I think he should be set free,” wrote Shawn Nolan, who said he knew Sosa from Lethbridge College. “And, I think he should be honoured by our Canadian government for the work he has done in teaching our people.”